Democracy Cuban-style: elections get under way

AP, HAVANA

There are no flashy TV ads or campaign signs spiked into front yards, and candidates definitely do not tour the island shaking hands and kissing babies. Elections in Cuba lack the hoopla they have in other countries, but authorities say they give people a voice in government and refute charges that the country is undemocratic. Critics call them a sham since voters cannot throw out the Communist Party long led by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and his brother, Cuban President Raul Castro.

A long, complicated and truly unique electoral process is under way on the island, with more than 8 million Cubans going to the polls this weekend for municipal elections. The process culminates in February, when national assembly legislators vote on who will occupy the presidency, a post held by Raul Castro since 2008.

The latest electoral exercise began last month, when Cubans met in common spaces, parks and buildings for neighborhood assemblies to choose the candidates in municipal elections. Those assemblies nominated 32,000 candidates, and each electoral district must have between two and eight names on the ballot.

Sheets of paper with terse biographies and photographs of the candidates were then taped up to strategically placed walls and windows in each neighborhood for residents to read. That is just about the only campaigning that is allowed.

Yesterday, Cubans were to cast ballots to choose among those candidates for municipal assemblies that administer local governments and relay complaints on issues such as potholes and housing, social and sports programs.

After the local elections, commissions elected by workers, farmers, youth, student and women’s groups then choose candidates for the national legislature, which eventually elects Cuba’s next president. Near-complete voter participation is expected. In 2007-2008, voter turnout was 96.8 percent.

The government says perennial high turnouts are a clear sign of support for the revolution. Dissidents say people vote out of fear that not doing so could get them in trouble. Polling places also turn into social gatherings for neighbors. Young students escort the elderly and the disabled to vote, and Cubans are reminded by state television, unions and women’s groups that casting a ballot is a patriotic duty.

The entire process is devoid of party slogans, ads or logos, since only one party is legal in Cuba, the Communist Party, and its job is to “guide” society and its politics rather than impose candidates, National Electoral Commission Secretary Ruben Perez said.

“Voting is free, not obligatory and secret,” he said. “Our system is totally transparent and we defend it like this. We think that it is very democratic. It is a different concept: no delegate represents any political interest, only society itself.”

While the Communist Party’s power and influence are enormous, candidates do not have to be party members.

However, those who do not usually come from allied groups, such as the Federation of Cuban Women and the neighborhood-watch Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

The nomination assemblies also see heated debate and criticisms about local problems, such as slow police response, poor water supply and garbage pickup or unauthorized vending stands that block sidewalks.

However, it is rare, almost unheard of, for a candidate to be nominated against the party’s wishes, and there is no real electoral threat to the country’s rulers.